Not Always The Hero // (Percy Jackson x Peter Parker)

Infinity Wars

It's okay to be saved once in a while too.

    Peter was going on a fieldtrip. Percy was sitting in his living room with Estelle, she was babbling and they were playing with her toys together in front of the TV. Peter had promised to take plenty of cool pictures of the MoMA- which he told Percy stood for "The Museum of Modern Art". On the TV was a Disney movie; Moana. Both Percy and Estelle really seemed to like that movie. They liked it so much that Sally and Paul had it on disc with bonus features. Percy was pretty sure a part of that was because they didn't want to take any risks in using technology. Who knew if streaming a movie could attract monsters, it was technically a form of technology, but all those greek rules were a little fuzzy with all the new-found technology and changes in the modern day.

    Everything was peaceful, Sally was in the kitchen at the table working on her newest novel, but was currently on the phone with Paul, who was at the school working. That left Percy to baby sit Estelle, and he didn't mind at all. He cherished every minute he got with her, she was a highlight in his life. She had the cutest hair that curled at the ends, and crazy straight bangs that were currently right at her eye level. Her hair was brown, not at all like his dark black hair. She was so temperamental too, but again, Percy didn't mind at all. She wasn't talking yet, she seemed to refuse to, but she had a few words down pat. "No" was her first word other than "Mama" and "Dada". She bit when she didn't get her way and ripped out hair for fun. Sadly, the demigod life had taken such a toll on Percy he didn't know how to interact with her without being scared to hurt her. Paul and Sally assured him that he wouldn't hurt her, but he wasn't so sure. What if she bit him and he involuntarily reacted? There had been more than one time where she bit him so hard it took everything in his power not to fling her off of him. Of course, because of Baby Estelle he had a new strength- keeping his cool when a baby with sharp finger nails tried to tear his nose off. This little beastie had drawn blood more than once, on himself, her parents, and even Peter. Kid had a grip.

    Percy was thankful he had been around her long enough where he was impervious to her little attacks, he had gotten to the point where he wasn't scared of accidentally hurt her, because he knew he never would. Even Sally and Paul had to leave the room sometimes because of their darling daughter, but Percy had eternal patience. In his eyes, she was the greatest, could-do-no-wrong thing ever. She literally ripped his hair out of his skull, but he still had the strongest compassion for her.

    They were playing with blocks. Percy would build the towers up, and then Estelle would knock them down violently, often hitting him in the face with multiple blocks. He was laughing and she was too. Her baby babbling, her laugh, it was the most amazing sound he had ever heard. It filled him with so much joy-

    Sally walked hurriedly into the room and took the remote off the couch, Percy turned to look at her as she turned Moana off and went to the local news station. He was about to ask why, but then he saw why. New York was under attack. A giant donut of a space ship had come down, wreaked some havoc, then went back up into space. Percy caught his breath when the news report switched to the video that had been captured. Iron man was flying up to the spaceship, then entered it, Spider-Man was hanging off of it when it went into the sky. No one had seen if either superhero ever came back down, but soon any traces of them were gone for good.

    Percy sat staring at the TV, everything else forgotten. The next couple of hours were awful, some of the worst of his life. His mom, Estelle, Paul, and himself were seemingly preparing for the apocalypse. Percy went to the grocery store. Paul came home. Sally invited May Parker to stay with them as long as she needed, she didn't know about Pete being Spidey, but she had enough sense to know the chaos in the city would prevent May's nephew from getting home for a while.

    Home with bags and bags and bags full of groceries to be unloaded in the kitchen. Mrs. Parker in near hysterics in the living room, on the sofa. She was unable to get ahold of Peter and was beginning to assume the worst. It was now the evening. As Percy unloaded groceries he felt something stir inside of him. He knew Peter was probably in space, but better safe than sorry. He offered to look for Peter. He was pretty sure the only reason his mom said yes is because she knew that Percy would be safe- there wasn't much that could take him down. Mrs. Parker however tried to insist otherwise, but Percy could tell she was secretly relieved that he was going to look for her nephew.

    Percy stared at the scene before him as he stood in the apartment doorway. His mom comforting Mrs. Parker, Paul holding Estelle, bouncing her on his knee. At that moment he was totally unaware that would be the last time he saw any of them for five years.

    Percy had been in the streets looking for Peter for maybe two hours. The sun was staring to set. There was still plenty of light, and would be for a while, and he knew in his heart that Peter wasn't on Earth any longer, but he wasn't ready to head home. Not yet. There were too many people in the streets that still needed help. There weren't enough first responders. People still needed help, and Percy was just the person to help.

    In fact, he was in the middle of helping when all the sudden everything hurt. The woman whose groceries he was carrying screamed when she looked at him. He bags of groceries fell out of his hands. In fact, he couldn't feel his hands. He watched dust fly into the air in front of him, Was he getting shorter? No, he was turning to dust.    

    Everything went numb, his vision went black, but for some reason he was still conscious. Everything was darkness. He was pretty sure he didn't even have a physical form, but somehow that didn't stop him from hurting. Didn't stop his mind from convincing him he was in tartarus again. He was finally being cursed for his crimes...

    For five years everything was black and Percy Jackson was trapped in the darkest parts of his head.